serrer
French
Etymology
From Old French serrer, from Vulgar Latin serrō (“close, shut”), from Late Latin serō (“fasten, bolt”), from Latin sera (“bolt, crossbar”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sɛ.ʁe/, /se.ʁe/
Audio (file)
Verb
serrer
- to tighten (a screw, a knot)
- Doucement ! Ça ne sert à rien de trop serrer cette vis. ― Gently! It's no use to tighten this screw too much.
- Ton nœud de cravate n'est pas assez serré. ― Your tie's knot isn't tightened enough.
- to shake (hands)
- J'ai refusé de lui serrer la main. ― I refused to shake his/her hand.
- to squeeze
- Il lui serra le bras si fort qu'elle en garda une trace pendant trois jours. ― He squeezed her arm so hard that she had a mark on it for three days.
- (reflexive) to squeeze
- Ils se sont serrés pour lui faire une place.
- They squeezed together to make room for him.
- (takes a reflexive pronoun) to shake (hands)
- Les jeunes hommes d'affaires se sont serré la main. ― The young businessmen shook each other's hands.
- (slang) to seduce; to flirt with
Conjugation
Conjugation of serrer (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | serrer | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | serrant /sɛ.ʁɑ̃/ or /se.ʁɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | serré /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | serre /sɛʁ/ | serres /sɛʁ/ | serre /sɛʁ/ | serrons /sɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁɔ̃/ | serrez /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/ | serrent /sɛʁ/ |
| imperfect | serrais /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/ | serrais /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/ | serrait /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/ | serrions /sɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁjɔ̃/ | serriez /sɛ.ʁje/ or /se.ʁje/ | serraient /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | serrai /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/ | serras /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/ | serra /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/ | serrâmes /sɛ.ʁam/ or /se.ʁam/ | serrâtes /sɛ.ʁat/ or /se.ʁat/ | serrèrent /sɛ.ʁɛʁ/ or /se.ʁɛʁ/ | |
| future | serrerai /sɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /se.ʁə.ʁe/ | serreras /sɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /se.ʁə.ʁa/ | serrera /sɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /se.ʁə.ʁa/ | serrerons /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ | serrerez /sɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /se.ʁə.ʁe/ | serreront /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | serrerais /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/ | serrerais /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/ | serrerait /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/ | serrerions /sɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ | serreriez /sɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /se.ʁə.ʁje/ | serreraient /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) | present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | serre /sɛʁ/ | serres /sɛʁ/ | serre /sɛʁ/ | serrions /sɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁjɔ̃/ | serriez /sɛ.ʁje/ or /se.ʁje/ | serrent /sɛʁ/ |
| imperfect2 | serrasse /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/ | serrasses /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/ | serrât /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/ | serrassions /sɛ.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ | serrassiez /sɛ.ʁa.sje/ or /se.ʁa.sje/ | serrassent /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | serre /sɛʁ/ | — | serrons /sɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁɔ̃/ | serrez /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/ | — | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Derived terms
- desserrer
- resserrer
- serrage
- serre-joint
- serre-livres
- serre-nœud
- serrement
- serre-tête
- serrer la main
- serrer la vis
- serrer les dents
- se serrer la ceinture
- se serrer les coudes
- serrer les rangs
Further reading
- “serrer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
Verb
serrer
- first-person singular present passive subjunctive of serrō